Hands On with the AntMiner S7 Batch 8
0) General information
1) Unpacking
2) The Miner
3) Install
4) Running the miner
5) Conclusion
6) How to purchase
0) General Information
The Bitmain S7 has been a very popular miner with current gen miners. With most reviews covering the earlier batch (most batch 1's) I felt it was worthy to do a more current one with a batch S7 from batch 8. They have now went to a specification which I expect them to keep for at least the near future and possibly longer. They currently are shipping out within 5 day's after payment. The efficiency and recent drop in price make this a real contender in current gen miners. This miner consists of 3 main modules with 3 blades in each. Together they bring a hashing speed of 4.73 TH at only 1293 watt's, making it run approximately at a efficiency of 0.25 J/GH. All of this with the familiar Bitmain GUI you have come to expect, making setup very easy.
Specifications:
1. Hash Rate: 4.73 TH/s ±5%
2. Power Consumption: 1293W + 10% (at the wall, with APW3, 93% efficiency, 25C ambient temp)
3. Power Efficiency: 0.25 J/GH + 10% (at the wall, with APW3, 93% efficiency, 25°C ambient temp) **Has been questioned as shown below. Email sent also asking for people to report their efficiency.
4. Rated Voltage: 11.60 ~13.00V
5. Chip quantity per unit: 135x BM1385
6. Dimensions: 301mm(L)*123mm(W)*155mm(H)
7. Cooling: 2x 12038 fan
8. Operating Temperature: 0 °C to 40 °C
9. Network Connection: Ethernet
10. Default Frequency: 700M
1) Unpacking
The miner is very well packed as you can see below. It is within a special styrofoam packing, that helps keep the miner in the center of the box. This helps keep the miner safe during shipping, and there is a message to owner that is on-top so you read it before running miner.
2) The Miner
Below are images to showcase the miner.
For Slideshow and higher resolution: http://s100.photobucket.com/user/notlist3d/slideshow/S7?sort=3
3) Install
One of the big things before install is to make sure all heat-sinks stayed in place during shipment. There are different way's to do this. I did not want to void warranty during my check. I chose to take fans off on both ends and look inside to ensure no heat-sinks had fallen during shipping.
The install can vary greatly for each person on electricity. For those of you familiar with my guides I used the same 240 volt 30 amp connection to a 30 amp PDU I used in my S5+ review. From this PDU I used one of the Bitmain server PSU suggested which came with the needed 10 PCIe cables, making the install very easy. ( https://bitmaintech.com/productDetail.htm?pid=000201505040743496917U7kGsCm0694 ).
The install time of S7 and PSU went very quick plugging into PDU (I did turn off power to PDU to not be plugging in cables that are live). This was done in only a few minutes. After install I did set a static IP as I always do then went to the very familiar and easy GUI to set up my pool information.
Below is a picture of the S7 installed with the Bitmain PSU:
4) Running the miner
Was very easy to set up and get running if you are familiar with the AntMiner GUI. At this point I changed network settings to set up with a static IP, and my pools are inputed after. Below you can see the S7 hashing away after setup.
Below shows the miner actually mining:
5) Conclusion
This miner takes the BM1385 chip and makes a powerful and efficient miner. For me it was a very simple and easy install, there were no issues during it. Using the recommended Bitmain psu really does help make it a simple install for those with 220/240. The hashing power you get with efficiency makes the new batch 8 with the price drop from batch 7 a great choice currently. I will continue to run and test out the S7 batch 8 and update this, but I expect there to be no issues.
6) How to purchase
You can go directly to the Bitmain's website: https://www.bitmaintech.com/productDetail.htm?pid=000201511170341298180m44675v0613
Please don't bash others, or try to turn into a ROI/other debate. Yes things such as ROI and other topics have a valid point, but this thread is to show the hardware